“Students have the resources of a major research institution, and the energy and fervor of a much-smaller, focused community. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?”

Kenneth Shockley, Academic Director

Sustainability Academy

UB students will have the chance to explore entrepreneurship and
sustainability through two new Undergraduate Academies—living
and learning communities that enable students with common interests
to live together and share meaningful experiences throughout their
college years.

The Entrepreneurship Academy launched this fall with about 40
freshmen. The Sustainability Academy will enroll its first class in
fall 2013. The new academies are an example of initiatives
undertaken by UB to benefit students using revenues generated by
the NYSUNY 2020 bill, signed into law last year by Gov. Andrew
Cuomo.

Members of each will enjoy such opportunities as exclusive
seminars and networking events, all relating to their
academy’s central theme. Participants in the Entrepreneurship
Academy, for instance, will meet and work with entrepreneurs in
Western New York, develop plans for entrepreneurial endeavors and
analyze different styles of entrepreneurship, including social
entrepreneurship.

Students who choose sustainability will have access to a
similar, broad range of offerings when that academy formally
opens.

“This is an exciting new direction,” says Kenneth
Shockley, the Sustainability Academy’s newly named academic
director. “Within a large public university, the academies
provide the sense of community and common purpose found in
thematically oriented liberal arts colleges: Students have the
resources of a major research institution, and the energy and
fervor of a much-smaller, focused community. Who wouldn’t
want to be a part of that?”

Shockley, an associate professor of philosophy in the College of
Arts and Sciences, researches topics including ethics and
environmental philosophy.

His counterpart in the Entrepreneurship Academy, Yong Li, is an
associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship in the School
of Management. Among other topics, Li studies how venture
capitalists make investment decisions under uncertain market
conditions.

Each of the two new academies builds on themes that UB and its
students have increasingly emphasized in recent years.

The Entrepreneurship Academy complements programs such as the
Western New York Prosperity Scholarship, which acquaints students
with careers and industries in the region, and the annual Henry A.
Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition for student
innovators.

UB’s recent investments in sustainability include opening
a solar array and several new green buildings in 2012, and
establishing an Office of Sustainability in 2011 to provide
leadership for initiatives like a campus-wide assessment of
performance in sustainability. Like the Office of Sustainability,
the Sustainability Academy will focus not only on traditional
environmental concerns, but on social equity and economic progress
as well.

The two Undergraduate Academies bring the total number at UB to
five. The other three, all launched since 2007, focus on civic
engagement, global perspectives and research exploration.

Together, the academies will serve about 560 students this year,
with the number rising in 2013 after the Sustainability Academy
launches, says Hadar Borden, the academies’ administrative
director.

“The formation of the Entrepreneurship and Sustainability
academies continues the strong momentum of the UB Undergraduate
Academies in providing unique learning communities to students from
a multitude of disciplines,” says A. Scott Weber, vice
provost and dean of undergraduate education. “Each of the
five Undergraduate Academies is thematically based around core
values in our undergraduate academic experience. They serve as a
cauldron for blending unique and diverse concepts into ideas to
enhance the future, and in doing so, enable UB to attract
exceptionally motivated students who want to make a
difference.”

Each academy accepts students from many different majors. The
Entrepreneurship Academy’s first cohort includes students
majoring not only in management, but also in arts, sciences,
engineering and health sciences, Li notes.

“That’s exactly what we want,” he says.
“Our academy serves as a catalyst to inspire and educate the
next generation of entrepreneurs, and students from any background
can be entrepreneurial. I’m passionate about entrepreneurship
and I believe one of the ways to revitalize the economy in this
area is through entrepreneurship.”